Fallout 3 - Interview, Gathering Good Karma

A handful of new items for Fallout 3 around the web today. First, character artist Dane Olds has been interviewed at NotesOnGameDev.net (thanks, Blue's):

That sounds like a lot to look forward to though. What was the inspiration for character art in Fallout 3?

A lot of the inspiration for the character art in Fallout 3 came from the original games. We drew heavily from those Retro-Future roots and you’ll see that throughout the character art in the game. With the weapons we always referenced the old art from Fallout. Sometimes the weapons are very close to the originals, other times they’ve been overhauled to fit specifically to the game we’ve created. A good example of this would be the Flamer. It’s functional, and is inspired by the real flame throwers used in World-War II. We take the real military designs, and then see where we can make them more interesting, what we can embellish on, and what we might need to remove. When the modeling and texturing is done we have to have something that is visually interesting and functional. Another great example is the ever-popular Power Fist. The original Power Fist was kind of an electric gauntlet. The new one has a pneumatic piston mounted on a thick steel framework that looks like an engine block. This weapon visually feels like it packs a punch, and it certainly does in the game.

Immediately after exiting the vault, players are given the opportunity to take their character in either direction. The citizens of Washington DC are in such a sorry state of existence that playing as a decent human isn't a difficult choice to make. Upon entering the first run-down shack on the road toward Megaton I met up with a woman named Silver. She's a downtrodden ex-prostitute and her only request is that you don't broadcast her existence to the man she owes money to. I readily agreed, and subtly inquired if she still offered any of her old services. I didn't exactly help her, but I didn't extort or murder her either. I was well on my way to sainthood.

If players change their play style there are ways to continuously swing your karma in the opposite direction. For example, I came across a starving bum camped just outside of Megaton that begs for fresh water. If you share some of the precious liquid you'll get a good karma boost and this can be done over and over again. Bethesda wanted players to have the ability to switch sides whenever they choose or even be ambiguous. They even mentioned that playing in the shades of gray in between good and evil offers its own set of benefits and perks.

Now, the first part is typical mainstreaming bullshit. No tough consequences please, we could offend our players, who we think are all spoiled brats: "what I can't get the good ending? I only mass murdered an entire town, that's no reason!" - "Oh sure, just bring this beggar 100 bottles of water, and all is forgiven". The second part of course is good, it is great if being neutral is at least a distincly different option than just being half good half bad. Still, the karma system strikes me as one of the more dubious elemts of FO3 for me - it just smacks of KOTOR.

It never bothered me in KotOR, since the Dark/Light Side meters fit perfectly with the black and white Star Wars universe (even if I was usually a bit of both). It did bother me in Jade Empire and (to a slightly lesser extent) Mass Effect though, where it was no longer necessary. I don't think it's necessary in Fallout either. I sure hope they live up to their promises about rewarding neutral characters. But knowing Bethesda, I won't get my hopes too high.